Tsunami Survivors Haunted By Ghostly Spectres

The devastating tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 took the lives of 19,000 people. To those who bore witness, the images of death and destruction still haunt them to this day. The following article talks about how the survivors of the tsunami are now suffering from extreme cases of PTSD, or Post-traumatic stress disorder. They’re claiming to be haunting by the ghosts of those who perished. The article from the Reuters talks about the phantom apparitions of headless ghosts.

What’s also interesting about this article is that Japanese psychiatrist, Keizo Hara, stated that these apparitions were due to the effects of PTSD.

“We think phenomena like ghost sightings are perhaps a mental projection of the terror and worries associated with those places.”

Hara said post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) might only now be emerging in many people, and the country could be facing a wave of stress-related problems.

“It will take time for PTSD to emerge for many people in temporary housing for whom nothing has changed since the quake,” he said.

In essence, the paranormal activity that patients are reporting is being explained by the traumatic events. Which from a psychophysiology perspective, this is just a hallucinatory effect. Now let’s sit on that for a minute.

In parapsychology, psychokinesis is thought to be the body’s psychophysiological response to heavy stress. But unlike those patients who report the ghostly hallucinations, those who report psychokinesis can willingly or unwillingly manipulate physical objects around them. But this is just a theory so take that with a grain of salt. Unfortunately parapsychology has been marginalized since the 1970s. Since then, there’s been very little headway in that obscure branch of psychology.

In a society wary of admitting to mental problems, many are turning to exorcists for help.

Tales of spectral figures lined up at shops where now there is only rubble are what psychiatrists say is a reaction to fear after the March 11, 2011, disaster in which nearly 19,000 people were killed.

“The places where people say they see ghosts are largely those areas completely swept away by the tsunami,” said Keizo Hara, a psychiatrist in the city of Ishinomaki, one of the areas worst-hit by the waves touched off by an offshore earthquake.

“We think phenomena like ghost sightings are perhaps a mental projection of the terror and worries associated with those places.”

Hara said post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) might only now be emerging in many people, and the country could be facing a wave of stress-related problems.

“It will take time for PTSD to emerge for many people in temporary housing for whom nothing has changed since the quake,” he said.

Shinichi Yamada escaped the waves that destroyed his home and later salvaged two Buddhist statues from the wreckage. But when he brought them back to the temporary housing where he lived, he said strange things began to happen.

His two children suddenly got sick and an inexplicable chill seemed to follow the family through the house, he said.

“A couple of times when I was lying in bed, I felt something walking across me, stepping across my chest,” Yamada told Reuters.

Many people in Japan hold on to ancient superstitions despite its ultra-modern image.

Yamada, like many other people in the area, turned to exorcist Kansho Aizawa for help.

Aizawa, 56, dressed in a black sweater and trousers and with dangling pearl earrings, said in an interview in her home that she had seen numerous ghosts.

“There are headless ghosts, and some missing hands or legs. Others are completely cut in half,” she said. “People were killed in so many different ways during the disaster and they were left like that in limbo. So it takes a heavy toll on us, we see them as they were when they died.”

In some places destroyed by the tsunami, people have reported seeing ghostly apparitions queuing outside supermarkets which are now only rubble. Taxi drivers said they avoided the worst-hit districts for fear of picking up phantom passengers.

The two terms, “superstition” and “Ultra-modernism”, complement each other perfectly and dwell together safely, in the same broader spectrum of Atheism/Paganism, which also includes chemical witch-doctor Keizo Hara.

Valkyrie13

But certainly not all ghosts are effects of PTSD or hallucinations, right? Because if there are no ghosts then there likely is no form of an afterlife, and I really need to know I will continue to exist in some way. I’ve said this before, how can we all not be walking around freaking out every second of the day because not one of us knows what really happens after death.

ghosttheory

Val,

Well, I guess the question is ‘what is a ghost?’ and respectively: ‘do ghosts exist?’

I think the uncertainty of death is primarily a western philosophy. Many other cultures or teachings see death as another stage in life. For example the ancient hieroglyphs in Egypt tell several stories of the afterlife. They don’t see death as something to freak out about.

Even in old Mesopotamian scripts we find stories of the afterlife. Like the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’.

Interesting stuff nonetheless.

Valkyrie13

I think stories like those serve to keep the masses calm, keeping them productive members of society. We should always be freaking out always! Seriously I wish I could be chill about all death stuff but I’m not. I’m so attached to me.

That’s some very curious reading, I’m gonna have fun looking at that one, thanks!

IThinkso

Michael Brea case is the profound example of who is mocking who and misleading who, in the name of the most merciful.

Yag Kosha

Well Val, if nothing happens after death (there is no afterlife) then there really isn’t anything to worry about. What we have to worry about is if there IS an afterlife, what is it all about? Are we in trouble? What’s going to happen to us and will we be prepared for it or will we like it?